The Forstall Family were a highly successful merchant family in the early days of the first incursion of the Northern Marches. They were one of the founding groups of Javelin Hill, and saw the potential for a defensible outpost that catered to the frontier and its explorers and pioneers. And their connections to the world beyond the Northern Gate allowed them to be one of the first to supply those goods to the people of Javelin Hill.
As their wealth grew, so did their
family. The patriarch of the family, Victor Forstall, began planning a massive
and magnificent compound for his burgeoning family, centered around an enormous
mansion on a hill overlooking the Misty Vale. It is said that from the highest
turret of the manse you could see the Placid River flowing languidly through
the hills to the south.
Six generations of Forstall’s
lived in, expanded and refined the Fortsall Estate and its grounds. The heart
of their trade and cartage operations ran there. As did all of the family. It
was a happy and beautiful place, protected and defended from all intruders,
carry on the Forstall Legacy.
Little tragedy had affected the
Forstall family for decades. They were planners, they were smart, and they were
wealthy. They knew how best to defend their fortunes, their families, their
home. And so they lived, were productive and invested in to the future of the
Northern Marches.
And then Abigail Forstall fell
ill. Abigail was the rail thin, raven haired, firebrand of a woman and wife of
Miles Forstall, 13th Lord of Forstall House. He was as morose as she
was full of life. But they shared a ravenous love and fit each other’s missing
parts. If you wanted cautious, calculating brilliance with a gulp of cynicism,
you talked with Miles. If you wanted a strolling, dinner, or adventuring
companion you chose Abigail, for she was as engaging, daring, athletic, and
intuitive as her husband wasn’t.
Abigail’s illness and eventual
death left Miles wracked with grief. He alternated from rage to deep
depression. And when he could take it no more he burned the entire compound to
the ground. The mansion, the buildings, the gardens, everything. And everyone.
It is commonly held that there could be no way
to so completely destroy the estate by normal, non-magical means. Once the
fires died down, and the debris was sifted through, no remains were found. Only
the Undercroft remained…
Today the Forstall Undercroft is the
most famous Donjon in the Misty Vale. And due to the peculiar restocking of its contents, it remains an important part of the Misty Vale for the training of inexperienced adventurers, a seemingly inexhaustable supply of treasure and loot, and for the tent city that has grown up around its entrance.
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